A Real Vacation

In a recent post I wrote that I had decided to go â€œoff the gridâ€ for my vacation. Having just returned last night from my trip to Arizona (visiting Amber’s parents), I want to reflect for a bit. Itâ€™s been a resolution of mine to more clearly delineate between work and the rest of my life. The work-life balance is tough for me because I enjoy my work and find it easy to devote a bit too much of my life to it. When your office could be anywhere with an Internet connection, itâ€™s sometimes hard to leave it behind.

This vacation let me do that. I made the conscious decision to leave work behind, not respond to clientsâ€™ emails unless it was an emergency, and focus on my vacation. I wanted to recharge mentally and physically.

Another resolution of mine is to be more active. While on vacation, I was able to go hiking, do some weightlifting, and spend a lot of time in the pool and hot tub. In the 60s and 70s of the Arizona winter, I found it easy to get out and get moving. Iâ€™m hoping to carry this momentum into 2007 and beyond. I was able to read again. I rarely read for pleasure anymore, since itâ€™s so time-consuming and because I tend to become very immersed in reading. I read two novels (Nick Hornbyâ€™s High Fidelity and About a Boy), two work-related non-fiction pieces, and am finishing up a third novel. I tossed in the work stuff not for specific projects, but for my own development. One of my goals of any vacation is to come back renewed and eager to dive back into my work, and these books helped me do that. Iâ€™ll write more about them later. Upcoming posts: